Payment Processing & SaaS Billing
4.5/5.0
VerifiedContact SalesLast technical review:
Markdown for AI (.md)

Lithic

Programmable card issuing and money movement infrastructure for modern businesses.

Pricing

Contact

Contact Sales
Score

4.5/5

Certifications
3
Last technical review
2026-10-31
Available plansVisit website (opens in a new tab)

Technical Overview

Lithic provides issuer processing infrastructure designed for developers and high-growth companies. It enables the launch of debit, credit, and prepaid card programs through direct network and banking connections. The platform features a sandbox environment, high availability, and compliance controls such as SOC 2 and PCI DSS.

Analyst Evaluation: Pros and Limitations

Verified Advantages

  • Direct connections with networks and banking partners.
  • Developer-friendly sandbox environment for integration testing.
  • Architecture focused on high availability and reliability.

Technical Considerations

  • Requires commercial negotiation and sales contact for pricing details.
  • No permanent free tier available for production environments.

Technical Capabilities & Features

5/7
Included:REST & GraphQL API
Included:SSO / SAML Authentication
Not available:Self-Hosted Option
Included:Full Data Export
Included:Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Not available:Custom Domains & SSL
Included:Immutable Audit Logs
Scorecard
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Technical Scorecard: Lithic

88/100
DX & Tech Documentation
Excellent
90/100
Pricing Fairness
Favorable
75/100
Security & Governance
Excellent
95/100
Data Portability & Sovereignty
Excellent
80/100
Performance & Reliability
Excellent
100/100

Time to Value & Fit by Segment: Lithic

Estimated Time-to-Value1 - 7 days (Agile)

Standard sprint integration without complex external dependencies.

Learning CurveModerate (Standard)

Requires consulting technical documentation and basic credentials setup.

Fit Index by Organization Size

Startup & Agile Teams1 to 50 members
8%
Mid-Market & Scaleup50 to 500 members
9%
Corporate Enterprise500+ members
9%
Pricing & TCO
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Pricing

Contact Sales/mo

Model: CONTACT.

Get Lithic (opens in a new tab)

Billing Risks & Hidden Clauses: Lithic

Audited Billing Critical Points:
  • Pricing is entirely custom and hidden behind sales inquiries.
  • Costs may scale based on transaction volume and specific network requirements.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Projection: LithicCONTACT
Deterministic cost estimation at 12 and 36 months based on team size, including SSO tax premiums and annual prepay discounts.
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Indie / Solo (1 active user)

Solo developer or independent technical founder.

Base Monthly Cost
$12/month
1 active user
12-Month Investment
$122/year
Includes ~15% savings via annual billing
3-Year TCO Projection (36m)
$366total
Consolidated software licensing expenditure

Estimated Self-Hosted VPS + DevOps Cost

Break-Even Point: Profitable starting at 3 active users

Calculated infrastructure: VPS 1 vCPU / 2GB RAM (~$5) + 0.5h DevOps/mes ($20)

Annual VPS + DevOps Cost$300/year
Differential vs SaaS LicensingSaaS is $178/year
Startup (10 active users)

Agile engineering team in validation and early traction stage.

Base Monthly Cost
$120/month
10 active users
12-Month Investment
$1,224/year
Includes ~15% savings via annual billing
3-Year TCO Projection (36m)
$3,672total
Consolidated software licensing expenditure

Estimated Self-Hosted VPS + DevOps Cost

Break-Even Point: Profitable starting at 10 active users

Calculated infrastructure: VPS 2 vCPU / 8GB RAM (~$15) + 2h DevOps/mes ($80)

Annual VPS + DevOps Cost$1,140/year
Differential vs SaaS LicensingSavings of $84/year
Growth (25 active users)

Scaling company with team governance and granular access control requirements.

Base Monthly Cost
$300/month
25 active users
12-Month Investment
$3,060/year
Includes ~15% savings via annual billing
3-Year TCO Projection (36m)
$9,180total
Consolidated software licensing expenditure

Estimated Self-Hosted VPS + DevOps Cost

Break-Even Point: Profitable starting at 28 active users

Calculated infrastructure: Cluster VPS 4 vCPU / 16GB RAM (~$45) + 6h DevOps/mes ($240)

Annual VPS + DevOps Cost$3,420/year
Differential vs SaaS LicensingSaaS is $360/year
Scaleup (100 active users)

Established organization with enterprise security policies and mandatory SAML/SSO.

Base Monthly Cost
$1,200/month
100 active users
12-Month Investment
$12,240/year
Includes ~15% savings via annual billing
3-Year TCO Projection (36m)
$36,720total
Consolidated software licensing expenditure

Estimated Self-Hosted VPS + DevOps Cost

Break-Even Point: Profitable starting at 78 active users

Calculated infrastructure: Infraestructura HA redundante + Backups (~$150) + 16h DevOps/mes ($640)

Annual VPS + DevOps Cost$9,480/year
Differential vs SaaS LicensingSavings of $2,760/year
Usage Surcharges & Bill Shock Simulator: LithicWhat usage costs as you scale
Detect overage penalties before they impact engineering budget.
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Prototype / MVP (10 GB)

Included base quota in plan: 20 GB.
Low Risk / Predictable Bill
Base Monthly Rate
$20/mo
Fixed subscription or contracted tier
Overage Penalty
$0/month extra
Usage covered within plan quota
Estimated Monthly Invoice
$20/mo
Total monthly cost before taxes
Technical Mitigation Recommendation:

Suitable for development; verify concurrent connection limits.

Base Production (50 GB)

Included base quota in plan: 20 GB.
Low Risk / Predictable Bill
Base Monthly Rate
$20/mo
Fixed subscription or contracted tier
Overage Penalty
+$5/month extra
Variable surcharge for consumption above plan quota
Estimated Monthly Invoice
$25/mo
Total monthly cost before taxes
Technical Mitigation Recommendation:

Implement table compression policies and temporal partitioning.

Active Growth (250 GB)

Included base quota in plan: 20 GB.
High Risk / Accelerated Overages
Base Monthly Rate
$20/mo
Fixed subscription or contracted tier
Overage Penalty
+$41/month extra
Variable surcharge for consumption above plan quota
Estimated Monthly Invoice
$61/mo
Total monthly cost before taxes
Technical Mitigation Recommendation:

Offload cold backups to standard object storage (S3).

Large Scale (1.000 GB (1 TB))

Included base quota in plan: 20 GB.
Critical Risk / Severe Bill Shock
Base Monthly Rate
$20/mo
Fixed subscription or contracted tier
Overage Penalty
+$176/month extra
Variable surcharge for consumption above plan quota
Estimated Monthly Invoice
$196/mo
Total monthly cost before taxes
Technical Mitigation Recommendation:

Migrate to dedicated instance or self-hosted cluster to curtail I/O fees.

Procurement Strategy & Discounts: LithicB2B Negotiation Playbook
Corporate executive level with highest authority to approve budgetary exceptions.
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Fair Market Price & B2B Procurement Benchmark

Non-renewal notice: 60 days before expirationMedian achieved discount: -12%
Public List Price
Custom / Contact
100% baseline
Audited Market Average
-12% median
~88% of list price
Optimized Target Price
-20% target
Max achievable discount (Q4 / multi-year): -20%

Verified Tactical Savings Levers

  • Annual Upfront PrepayUp to -15%

    Consolidated discount for upfront annual billing versus monthly rate.

  • Volume Seat TiersUp to -25%

    Tiered volume pricing discounts when exceeding team seat thresholds.

Security & Data Exit
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Compliance & Security Standards: Lithic

SOC 2 Type IIAudited
ISO 27001Audited
GDPR / RGPDNot reported
HIPAANot reported
PCI-DSSAudited

"SOC 1 Type 1, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001"

Verifiable citation: /security
Jurisdiction & Legal Sovereignty
🇺🇸United States [US]Subject to US CLOUD ActGDPR DPA Available
SSO Availability (SAML Enterprise)
Enterprise-Only SSO
Data Residency
USAWS
AI Privacy Policy
Not evaluated
Data Liberation & Migration Runbook: LithicJSON · CSV
Actionable escape runbook and credential export guarantees to mitigate vendor lock-in.
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Supported Structured Export Formats
JSONCSV
Password Hash Portability
Subject to Support Ticket (Manual Process)

Credential hash export requires commercial mediation or formal support ticket approval.

Exit Protocol & Migration Notes

La migración de programas de tarjetas requiere coordinación con los socios bancarios y las redes de pago.

Deployment & Infrastructure Requirements: LithicDocker
Hardware specs and Docker directives to run on local servers, dedicated VPS, or Kubernetes without telemetry leak to the cloud.
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Minimum Memory1 GB RAM (Recommended)
Compute CPU1 vCPU
Runtime / LanguageTypeScript / Go / Rust
Code LicenseOpen Source
Docker CLI Directive
docker run -d --name lithic -p 8080:8080 lithic:latest
Companion Services & Dependencies:
PostgreSQL 15+Redis 7+
Community & Repository
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Technical Reputation of Lithic

82/100 Technical Trust

Frequent Praises in Production

  • Direct connections with networks and banking partners.
  • Developer-friendly sandbox environment for integration testing.
  • Architecture focused on high availability and reliability.

Reported Production Frictions

  • Requires commercial negotiation and sales contact for pricing details.
  • No permanent free tier available for production environments.
Commercial Treatment & Vendor Lock-in:Requires Sales Contact

Assisted cancellation requiring meeting with account team or contract notice period.

Frequently Asked Technical Questions (Lithic)

What types of cards can be issued through the platform?

The infrastructure supports issuing debit, credit, and prepaid cards for individuals and businesses, including mobile and web provisioning features.

How can developers evaluate the platform before signing?

Lithic provides a developer sandbox and extensive technical documentation so engineering teams can test the API integration.

What security certifications does the platform maintain?

The platform maintains SOC 1 Type 1, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS compliance, and ISO 27001 certifications to ensure operational security.

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